September 13, 2006
What Banned Books have you read?
Google blog has a post on the American Library Association's Banned Books Week (Sept. 23-30) and Google has also created a Banned Books page (in conjunction with Book Search) to highlight novels that have been threatened or actually banned.
Related: Banned Books Readings in Philadelphia
Being challenged this year are To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (I saw the movie for both and also read the latter).
Apparently I've read many of these books (or seen the movie based on the novel in some cases) (after the jump)
Books I have read that have been challenged throughout the years:
* The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (both)
* Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
* The Lord of the Flies by William Golding (junior high)
* The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (movie only)
* The Color Purple by Alice Walker (movie only)
* Ulysses by James Joyce (started not finished)
* Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (movie only)
* Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (one of my favorite novels) (no relation)
* Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (junior high)
* The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (started not finished)
* Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (both)
* A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (both)
* One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (movie only)
* Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (movie only)
* The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
* Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (movie only)
* A Separate Peace by John Knowles (summer reading list in HS)
* The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
* Rabbit, Run by John Updike (brilliant)
Posted by Kevin Heller at 01:58 PM
September 12, 2006
Free Expression is not Free
It could cost you your job, your life, your safety, your privacy, your freedom....
Assignment: find your own links for each of the above; it shouldn't be too hard.
Posted by Kevin Heller at 07:39 AM
August 02, 2006
Writ Backlog
You can always find good articles at Findlaw's Writ. The difficulty is often making time to read them. Here are some that I am just getting around to reading:
The Legality of Web "Blacklists": Should It Be Against the Law to List Malpracticing Doctors and Litigation-Happy Patients on the Internet? by Julie Hilden [via Christine A. Corcos' Media Law Prof Blog and more from Concurring Opinions] (I haven't linked to her in a while apparently -- previously: Slander Litigation Run Amok)
Is it Legal to Teach a Course on Computer Hacking? In the United States, the Answer is Yes, Unless There is Specific Knowledge and Intention as to Crimes, And Unless Terrorism Is Abetted by Anita Ramasastry (also: A Fourteen-Year-Old Girl's Suit Against MySpace)
A Court Rules That Privately Editing Films for Content Violates Studios' Copyright: The Decision in Clean Flicks v. Steven Soderbergh and Its Cultural Context by Marci Hamilton
Posted by Kevin Heller at 04:24 PM
May 26, 2006
Doe Journalists should have been protected from Apple
Denise Howell has the scoop on the Apple v. Does decision and it came out in favor of Does: "the court held a protective order should have been issued [] because..."
Posted by Kevin Heller at 03:59 PM
January 24, 2006
A Million Little Bits of Information
I want to recommend that you focus on the following for one day:
The Broadcast Flag - EFF, Public Knowledge, boingboing
Government Domestic Spying Program - (see e.g. DOJ wants your search records, NYT, EFF)
Related: Boycott DRM, Legislating Decency
Previously: Google v. the DOJ, Congress could care less about its constituents
Posted by Kevin Heller at 12:22 AM
January 23, 2006
Defamation Trumps Anonymity
Shannon P. Duffy at The Legal Intelligencer reports that "a Philadelphia judge has ruled that a valid defamation claim trumps any right to speak anonymously [... and] ordered the operator of two now-defunct Web sites to turn over the identities of the anonymous authors of comments on the sites that allegedly defamed [Klehr Harrison] a Philadelphia law firm." [Law Firm's Defamation Claim Found to Trump Critics' Internet Anonymity]
[Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg & Ellers v. JPA Development Inc. (Common Pleas) (Sheppard, J.)]
More on anonymity: Anonymous Blogging and Employment [via Rob Hyndman]
(tags: anonymity; free speech; media law)
Posted by Kevin Heller at 01:00 PM
Congress could care less about its constituents
Professor Ed Felten on the Analog Hole bill: "I can know the contents of the bill Congress is debating, but only if I pay $10k to a private party, and only if I promise not to tell anybody what is in the bill or engage in public debate about it." [Analog Hole Bill Would Impose a Secret Law]
Fred von Lohmann on Broadcast Flag: "Now the RIAA and MPAA want to betray that legacy by passing laws that will regulate new technologies in advance and freeze fair use forever." [New Senate Broadcast Flag Bill Would Freeze Fair Use]
Posted by Kevin Heller at 12:29 PM
January 20, 2006
Slander Litigation Run Amok
Julie Hilden's article The Slipperiness of Slander: The Suit Against Paris Hilton, in this week's Writ, illustrates some of the First Amendment problems with a slander lawsuit as well as contrasts the way slander and libel litigation proceed in practice.
Available online are copies of the complaint, her former publicist's depo, her depo, emails between her and her publicist and the NY Post Story [pdf] that started it all. [related: Paris Hilton Stars in ‘To Kill a Page Six Item’]
Previously: Paris apparently says "that's hot" so often that she filed a trademark application for it. [related] | All Over Paris | Paris and Rick | Paris Hilton, Director?
Bonus: MP3 of first chapter of Julie Hilden's most recent novel: 3.
Posted by Kevin Heller at 10:50 PM